J.D. Hayworth Changes Tune on John McCain's Support of Obamacare Repeal

Yesterday, we published a story about comments that Senate hopeful J.D. Hayworth made about John McCain's support of a bill that would repeal the federal healthcare law that passed earlier this year.

At a campaign stop this week, Hayworth was discussing McCain's reluctance to co-sponsor a repeal of the law sponsored by South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint and said, "Look at what the senator does, not what he says in sound bites for the media. Why hasn't he signed on as a co-sponsor to Senator Jim DeMint's bill to repeal ObamaCare? John McCain went to Washington to change it but Washington changed him," Hayworth said at the event.

Turns out McCain is signed on to DeMin'ts bill and has been since April 20.

Click here to see the bill summary, compliments of the Library of Congress.

Since yesterday's post, we spoke to Hayworth's campaign spokesman Mark Sanders who says Hayworth's comments were based more on ignorance than dishonesty.

When we told Sanders that McCain was signed onto the bill, he told us, "It's not like we're checking [to see if McCain signed on to the bill] everyday."

Sanders says, while he didn't hear the comments, Hayworth often premises statements like the one about McCain's lack of support for the ObamaCare repeal by saying, "Last time I checked..."

Sanders concedes that McCain has signed onto the bill but says he was one of the last Republicans to jump aboard. He also says McCain's support of DeMint's bill only came after Hayworth challenged "The Maverick" to sign on as a co-sponsor on April 9 -- 11 days before McCain got behind the repeal.

"Like with most every issue in this campaign, McCain wants it both ways -- he wants to be for Obamacare and then against it, he wants to support amnesty for illegal aliens and then wants to complete the danged fence, he wants to oppose tax cuts and now wants them extended," Sanders says.

"Slipping into the Capitol to be among the last co-sponsors is not leadership, it is political flip-flopping."

McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers, after hearing Hayworth's response, sent us an e-mail describing a place that usually only exists in DC comics: "Welcome to JD Hayworth's bizarro world, where up is down, left is right, and truth doesn't exist. We're onto you, J.D. Arizona deserves better."